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Backrooms.

Had one while growing up in a house built in 1917. I grew up building and remodeling. House had one cold water tap in the kitchen. Toilet stool was in the basement entry.

Dad put in a modern kitchen and bathroom before we moved in.

The next major project was the backroom. I think it was about 10 x 18. It adjoined the kitchen. Our main entry into the house. Only strangers came to the front door. LOL.
It had the W/D, big chest freezer. Huge 6 ft. open coat closet with shelves. A 6 ft. coat hanger rod topped by a shelf. 2 x 4 floor to ceiling pantry closet.
8 ft. built-in laundry folding and misc. table. Cupboards over the work area
and W/D. There was no wasted space in our house. But plenty of room to live and play.

Sounds like our summer kitchen. Not insulated. Cooking done on a wood stove back in the day. Cistern with hand pump for water. Not used any more. I just finished painting it. It's over 150 yrs old and this is the second coat of paint. Hubby uses it for smoking room and it's our kitty hang out. It has been cleaned out and reorganized at least 5 times in our 15 yrs in this house. It seems to be the catch all room. Ours has a wood shed attached that is very handy during the winter.

Sounds like a wonderful house to me. I love big, roomy, old houses. That is my dream one day to own. My mother was raised in several such houses and they all had their charms. I love old memories. Where I was raised we used to have a high back porch with maybe 15 or 16 stairs going up to it. I used to stand at the top and blow bubbles and dream of how it would be if I could step into that bubble and fly over the trees and the rooftops bound for adventures. It was a fun thing. The bubbles were so beautiful in the bright summer sunlight.

Our old farm house was built before indoor plumbing. I never was able to find out exactly what year. When we moved in, the kitchen was 'modern.' (1955) And had been for some time. The closet in the master bedroom was once the toilet closet. A normal (but very small) bathroom was installed between the master and second bedrooms. We had a wonderful front room that looked south. The upper portion of the whole wall was paned glass. That room had the formal front door in the easterly wall. We hardly ever used that door; it stayed locked most of the time. We came and went from the back porch, which led into the kitchen. Our dining was in the same area as the living room. Early Great-Room concept. Who knew!? There was a room that connected to the back porch which was used as an office, ironing room and contained our humungous chest freezer. The house had zilch insulation, so we boiled in the summer, (hard to sleep) (lots of nights on the haystack in a sleeping bag, watching the stars), and the winters saw a nice fire in the old fire-place, and everyone wearing sweaters and cozy slippers.

My favorite part of that house was the huge basement. Wonderfully cool and pleasantly musty in the summer. I left that house when I was 17, but have very strong memories of it. Sigh....

Wow. I can almost visualize it in all its glory. It sounds beautiful and full of memories. Do me a favour. Record all you remember for future generations. I was blessed with my Mothers memory of spending summers at her grandparents farm. I'm the only one of over 20 cousins that even know the layout, the location, the character, etc of the homestead. Now I have discovered I have cousins that have bought country farm land and trying to recreate going back to the landscape. Family history is precious. It defines who and what we are even though we may not know it.

I can still remember the houses, buildings, land of most the family farms. Even some things that happened before I was 4 yo.
My Dad's parents had a huge farm kitchen that 40 people could eat in. LOL. The back door was a split level. Half up to the kitchen, half down to the basement. The landing was the backroom. It was about 12 x16.
When my Mom's parents moved off their farm, they built a 3 BR Rambler in town. Half the basement was walled off into the grandkids room. No TV, 4 beds, a few card tables and chairs and a toilet and shower. And huge stacks of board games and newspaper funny pages. Sometimes the adults brought lunch down to us. For breakfast and supper we had to go upstairs and eat in shifts. LOL.
My mom's great grandfather homesteaded that family farm after he lost all his carpenter tools in the Great Chicago Fire. 4 generations farmed it. My uncle sold it in 2000. No one in my generation wanted to farm.

I can still remember the houses, buildings, land of most the family farms. Even some things that happened before I was 4 yo.
My Dad's parents had a huge farm kitchen that 40 people could eat in. LOL. The back door was a split level. Half up to the kitchen, half down to the basement. The landing was the backroom. It was about 12 x16.
When my Mom's parents moved off their farm, they built a 3 BR Rambler in town. Half the basement was walled off into the grandkids room. No TV, 4 beds, a few card tables and chairs and a toilet and shower. And huge stacks of board games and newspaper funny pages. Sometimes the adults brought lunch down to us. For breakfast and supper we had to go upstairs and eat in shifts. LOL.
My mom's great grandfather homesteaded that family farm after he lost all his carpenter tools in the Great Chicago Fire. 4 generations farmed it. My uncle sold it in 2000. No one in my generation wanted to farm.

I sure can relate to your memories of the old home place, norsen.... even though it was quite different from my home. So sad about the tools; some of those could be re-acquired, but never quite as good as the dear originals!!!!